From Accountant to Entrepreneur: Louis Lau’s Entrepreneurial Journey and Business Insights

Louis Lau’s career has taken him from studying business-related subjects at university to working in accounting and, eventually, starting his own company during the pandemic. Born in Southern California, Louis attended the University of California, San Diego, where he studied international studies and economics, with additional studies in accounting and business. He spent roughly ten years working in accounting and has nearly fifteen years of professional experience overall. Around 2020, as the pandemic reshaped people’s lives and careers, he began exploring a different direction.

Today, Louis runs Sun Dry, a brand offering traditional Asian snacks. Its first store is inside the 99 Ranch Market on Balboa Avenue in San Diego. At the time of our interview, he was preparing to open a second location on the UC San Diego campus, hoping to introduce more students and community members to these products. His accounting background continues to shape how he approaches the challenges of running a business.

Putting Accounting Knowledge to Work

Louis did not begin college with a clearly defined career plan. His studies in international studies and economics covered a broad range of subjects, and when he discovered that UC San Diego offered an accounting minor, he decided to try it. He developed an interest in the subject and entered the accounting profession after graduation.

That experience later became a foundation for entrepreneurship.

“What accounting really helped me with was understanding the numbers,” Louis explained.

For a small business, revenue, product costs, wages, and overall financial performance all affect whether it can stay open. Louis’s background helps him handle accounting and taxes, but it also allows him to assess the financial health of his company. The appeal of entrepreneurship extended beyond those numbers. After years of working in corporate settings, he wanted a more direct connection with customers. Running his own business offered a chance to understand what people wanted and provide products he believed had value.

“I wanted to help customers directly and sell meaningful products that people actually wanted,” he said.

That desire helped move him toward a different career.

A Turning Point During the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted many people to reconsider their work and future. For Louis, it created an opportunity to try different kinds of work and explore other career paths. As he continued experimenting, he found that entrepreneurship, despite its challenges, gave him a stronger sense of accomplishment. The transition also changed his daily routine. Corporate work generally came with established responsibilities and procedures. Running a business meant facing new projects, customer responses, and operational problems.

“Every day is different,” he said.

Entrepreneurship can demand more time than his previous work did. Still, the process of learning and solving problems gives him a reason to stay engaged.

As Sun Dry prepares to expand, Louis is paying close attention to whether the business can support that growth. Opening another physical store requires additional investment and brings new risks. His first concerns are avoiding ongoing losses and determining whether the existing store can generate consistent revenue. Sun Dry is still in its early stages, and its initial investment has not yet been fully recovered. Louis therefore looks at revenue growth, customer feedback, marketing results, and whether the company is meeting a real demand.

One concept from his business studies remains especially useful: an unmet need.

If customers want something but cannot easily find a suitable option, Louis sees a potential business opportunity. For Sun Dry, that includes demand for familiar Asian snacks and traditional foods.

Bringing Asian Snacks to Campus

The planned UC San Diego location will serve a different audience from the store inside 99 Ranch Market. Louis sees college students as customers with particular preferences and an interest in distinctive Asian products.

Rather than simply repeating the first store’s format, he hopes to create an Asian convenience store that fits into students’ everyday lives. The campus location will offer a variety of snacks, including products that may be difficult to find near an American university. For some Asian students, these foods carry memories of childhood and family. Louis hopes to make familiar snacks easier to access while giving other students a chance to explore foods from different Asian cultures.

As a UC San Diego alumnus, he also plans to work with student organizations and connect with the campus community through activities such as fundraisers.

Letting Customers Guide Product Decisions

For a small retailer, choosing suppliers and setting prices are central parts of running the business. Louis regularly monitors product demand and market prices. With access to suppliers in the Los Angeles area, he can compare purchasing options and consider prices in both Los Angeles and San Diego.

Customer feedback also helps determine what Sun Dry stocks. Many products come from Asia, and young consumers’ interests on social media provide another source of information.

Louis described a straightforward approach: introduce a product, observe the response, and adjust. If customers enjoy it and sales are strong, the store orders more. If it continues to sell poorly, purchasing decreases and the product may eventually be discontinued. The approach requires Louis to test his assumptions against what customers actually buy. His own preferences can suggest a product worth trying, but customer responses determine whether it stays on the shelves.

Adapting While Building Reliable Systems

Asked about the biggest change from studying business to running a company, Louis pointed to adaptability.

Corporate jobs often have clearly defined procedures and responsibilities. Entrepreneurship brings greater uncertainty, and a solution that worked yesterday may not address today’s problem. Business owners need to keep learning and adjust their methods as circumstances change. At the same time, Louis believes a growing company needs consistent procedures. He drew attention to standard operating procedures, or SOPs, which he encountered during his corporate career.

Tasks such as hiring employees, cleaning the store, and serving customers can all follow clear guidelines. Those procedures help a business maintain its standards as it expands from one location to several. They also allow operations to depend on a shared system rather than on the owner handling every task personally.

Building the right team is another part of that process. Louis reviews applications and résumés himself and takes part in interviews. He looks for critical thinking, sound judgment, awareness of food-handling practices, and the ability to communicate with customers. Because Sun Dry sells Asian snacks, speaking additional languages can be an advantage. More broadly, he wants employees who are willing to talk with customers and learn what they like or dislike. That interest in conversation shapes the store environment Louis hopes to create. Customers should be able to sample products, ask questions, and share their reactions. For him, those interactions make the shopping experience more welcoming and provide information that can guide business decisions.

Advice for High School Students: Find a Need and Understand the Risk

For high school students interested in business, Louis recommends learning about different companies, talking with entrepreneurs, and looking for unmet needs in daily life.

A genuine need can offer a starting point. The next question is whether a product or service can meet that need, provide value, and generate revenue. He also emphasizes the importance of understanding risk. Entrepreneurship does not suit everyone. College followed by an established career can offer greater predictability, while starting a business requires accepting the possibility of failure. Before choosing that path, young people should consider their family circumstances, financial resources, and personal situation.

“Don’t get carried away by dreams or take excessive risks,” Louis advised.

His message is to make choices with a clear understanding of what those choices require. Ambition matters, but so does knowing which path fits one’s circumstances.

Creating Opportunities Through Business and Community

Looking ahead, Louis hopes Sun Dry will reach more customers and continue to grow. If sales support further expansion, he would like to open additional stores. He also has a more personal goal: introducing young people to the ideas behind Sun Dry and encouraging them to consider a wider range of snacks. He remembers enjoying Hot Cheetos, M&M’s, and gummies as a child. Now, he hopes to introduce more traditional fruit-based snacks as part of his interest in healthier choices.

For Louis, the business offers a way to connect with the community. That connection runs through his decisions about products, customer service, campus partnerships, and future growth. His experience shows how classroom knowledge becomes useful in everyday business decisions. Accounting helps him understand costs and revenue. Conversations with customers help him choose products. Procedures help him prepare for expansion.

For students exploring their own futures, his story offers a practical place to begin: notice what people need, ask questions, and consider how to provide something useful. As Louis observed during the interview, whether in college, a career, or entrepreneurship, much depends on how a person creates and makes use of opportunities.